World of Psychology » Tracy Shawn, MAhttp://psychcentral.com/blog
Dr. John Grohol's daily update on all things in psychology and mental health. Since 1999.Sun, 02 Aug 2015 18:15:33 +0000en-UShourly1Walking Away from Anxiety & Fearhttp://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2015/06/05/walking-away-from-anxiety-fear/
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2015/06/05/walking-away-from-anxiety-fear/#commentsFri, 05 Jun 2015 22:55:08 +0000http://psychcentral.com/blog/?p=74485Anxiety. The very word can make me feel tense, fretful, stressed. It pinches a personal nerve, as I have suffered from both chronic and acute varieties. (And I’m not just talking about the normal, everyday fare either: Mine has included quite over-the-top irrational fear, which makes watching end-of-the-world movies a relaxing respite). But I have fought my anxiety, an ongoing process that — for the most part — has been a journey of positive transformation.

I know I’m not alone. If you look at the statistics, anxiety disorders affect about 18% of U.S. adults, creating some 40 million tormented citizens. That makes a heck of a lot of people walking down the street, trying to push past their fear.

Some may turn to counseling, some to medication, and some may battle the angst with a combination of therapy and medication. Like so many things in life, what works for one person, may or may not work for the next.

I had tried all the above (including a host of herbal remedies), yet still had not been able to live a life without chronic and acute fear intruding into my daily thoughts and happiness.

So, on a sleepless summer night, I edged toward the TV as I listened to bright-eyed Lucinda Bassett, author of the best-selling book From Panic to Power, talk about how she was able to transcend her own fear and why she had started the Midwest Center, a well-respected program that treats people suffering from chronic stress, anxiety and depression. (Please note that there are a plethora of helpful books and programs available in a variety of price ranges, which may help you on your own personal journey through anxiety.)

By the hazy light of the screen, I scribbled down the number, and in the morning ordered their program. I listened to the tapes on a portable cassette player (yes, it was that long ago!), as I walked by myself on the beach or hiked alone on mountain trails. In doing so, I was better able to absorb and practice the ways to replace negative, fearful thoughts with more productive — and sane — self-talk.

I am happy to say that over time, with a lot of practice (and from the cathartic healing from my own writing), my overall anxiety has significantly decreased.

In the process, I also learned a poignant lesson: I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t the only person leading a normal life while battling the undertow of irrational fear. Somehow that fact alone helped me become even more hopeful and empowered.

If other people with thoughts just as scary as mine could climb out of their anxiety, then I could too. Yes, I still face some dark days. But it’s different than it used to be. Now I realize that no matter how bad things look, the dread won’t last.

Since anxiety can be isolating and is also an essentially a thick kind of worry about the future, knowing that I’m not alone — and that it will eventually fade away have become my best antidotes.

]]>http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2015/06/05/walking-away-from-anxiety-fear/feed/3Holiday Survival When Anxious or Depressedhttp://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/12/03/holiday-survival-when-anxious-or-depressed/
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/12/03/holiday-survival-when-anxious-or-depressed/#commentsWed, 03 Dec 2014 16:45:33 +0000http://psychcentral.com/blog/?p=66564For those of us who suffer from anxiety or depression, the holiday season can prove especially challenging. The juxtaposition of unhappy thoughts alongside the cheery Christmas music, nostalgic movies dripping with holiday sentimentality, and advertisements displaying jubilant people celebrating the season can make us feel even worse.

The American Psychological Association lists financial concerns, unrealistic expectations, and the inability to be with certain family members and friends as contributing factors to holiday anxiety. Mix in the stressors of shopping, family reunions, travel, office parties, and dealing with houseguests, and no wonder this seasonal “cheer” can be a landmine.

Below are five tips on how to navigate the holiday season when you are also dealing with ongoing anxiety and depression:

Acknowledge your feelings. According to the Mayo Clinic article on stress management, one of the first steps in dealing with holiday stress is to express your true feelings. If you need to, take time out to cry or share your feelings with a trusted family member or friend. Remember that you cannot force yourself to be happy just because it’s the holiday season. It’s okay to feel and express what is going on inside of you.

Keep your schedule sane. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America suggests that it’s a helpful idea not to overschedule during the holidays. Remember that you can control the seasonal overload instead of letting it control you. You do not have to attend every function, and when you do, it may help to arrive late and leave early. And if some traditions cause you more stress and unhappiness than joy, consider changing them or even letting them go altogether.

Maintain realistic expectations. Remember that no one has the perfect family, so toss out the unrealistic wishes and expectations that whatever family function you attend will be as pumpkin-pie sweet as that Hallmark movie you’ve just watched. Instead, realize that, yes, you will probably have to deal with some of the same old family dynamics that push your buttons. Remember that this isn’t the time to air past resentments. Stay calm, change the subject, and then steer clear. You can always wait to sort through your feelings over the phone with an understanding friend after you get home, or even to the blissfully nonjudgmental ear of your dog or cat.

Focus on healthy habits. Although the holiday season can throw us off schedule, it’s important to maintain healthy habits. Engaging in regular physical and mental wellness routines such as jogging, yoga, spiritual practices and long walks can calm one’s mind and provide a better prospective on what’s really important. Also, think twice about overindulging in alcohol. Overdrinking has been shown to exacerbate both depression and anxiety.

Create a comfort zone. This one is a personal favorite that I have practiced for many years. I have discovered that if I consciously plan a calming activity after a stressful social event, it helps me feel a lot less anxious both during and after that event. So, think about something soothing that you can look forward to immediately after coming back from social functions that may leave you feeling drained. It helps that much more to know that when your in-laws guilt-trip you about not visiting enough, you can picture yourself in just an hour or two lounging on your couch and watching a comedy or snuggling under the covers and reading a great book.

]]>http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/12/03/holiday-survival-when-anxious-or-depressed/feed/03 Creative Ways to Combat the Blueshttp://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/08/09/3-creative-ways-to-combat-the-blues/
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/08/09/3-creative-ways-to-combat-the-blues/#commentsSat, 09 Aug 2014 23:35:17 +0000http://psychcentral.com/blog/?p=61594Often, stress, disappointments, and mundane realities of everyday life plague our inner worlds so much that it’s difficult to experience positive emotions such as joy, peace, and spontaneity. Unfortunately, it becomes a vicious cycle.

The negative emotions build up even more, sapping our mental and physical energies to the point where it’s a challenge just to get through our daily routines. Our bodies become just as blunted as our spirits. Happily, though, there are three easy and inspiring activities that can help us beat the blues and increase our general well-being.

View art. Professor Semir Zeki, a neurobiologist at the University College London, conducted a series of experiments about what happens to the pleasure centers of the brain when people view works of art. After scanning volunteers’ brains while they gazed at a variety of masterpieces, Prof. Zeki noted that there was a definite increase of activity in the pleasure reward centers of the brain.According to science correspondent Richard Alleyne’s May 2011 article in Telegraph.co.uk, viewing art “…triggers a surge of the feel-good chemical, dopamine, into the orbito-frontal cortex of the brain, resulting in feelings of intense pleasure.” Alleyne, who had quoted Prof. Zeki on his studies, also stated that this current research suggests that viewing art can increase general mental health.

Listen to music. There are countless references from centuries past about how music mends our souls. Now science has proven these sentiments to be true. Research conducted at the University of Missouri found that listening to music does lead to more positive feelings. Yuna Ferguson, the study’s lead author, states that participants markedly improved their moods after listening to upbeat music. In a June 2013 Psychology Today article, pharmacist Catherine Ulbricht states that all forms of music may have therapeutic effects. “There is strong scientific evidence supporting the use of music therapy for mood enhancement and anxiety/stress relief, according to Natural Standard research,” Ulbricht said.

Hit the dance floor. Exercise is an overall feel-good remedy. The benefits of physical activity include the reduction of stress, depression, and anxiety. Combine exercise with mood-enhancement music and the brain-stimulating steps of dances such as salsa, merengue, and swing, and you’ve got an uplifting activity. According to Jeannette Thornton, M.D., dancing “…releases pleasurable brain chemicals that fight against depression and help build self-confidence and improves self-esteem.” Also, dancing can be a lot more fun and socially engaging than other forms of exercise, which encourages the joy of spontaneity and decreases feelings of isolation and depression.

Yes, when you are feeling anxious, depressed, or stressed, it can be challenging to not only make the time, but also gather up enough energy to engage in art, music, and dance. Yet it can be done. And in so doing, you may be rewarded with a surprisingly wonderful boost to your emotional health. So next time you’re down, take a peaceful stroll through a museum or gaze at the pages of an art book to boost the feel-good chemicals in your brain.

For another healthy and positive mood-enhancement activity, go to a concert or simply crank up your favorite music while driving or cleaning house. And to help release even more of your pleasurable brain chemicals, boogie on down to the dance floor. In fact, why not reward yourself with a whole “mental-health” Saturday to take in some art, listen to your favorite music, and then swing dance your way out of the blues? By Sunday morning, you may be that much happier for it.

]]>http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/08/09/3-creative-ways-to-combat-the-blues/feed/0The Healing Power of Animals in Our Age of Technologyhttp://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/06/18/the-healing-power-of-animals-in-our-age-of-technology/
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/06/18/the-healing-power-of-animals-in-our-age-of-technology/#commentsWed, 18 Jun 2014 10:35:45 +0000http://psychcentral.com/blog/?p=59069I think I could turn and live with animals, they’re so placid and self-contained,
I stand and look at them long and long.

~ Walt Whitman (1819-1892), Song of Myself, 32

Our bodies and brains are drowning in technology. Hunching behind computer screens and peering at our cells, we are lured by an electronic siren that is steering us into emails, texts, and social media sites on a constant, seven-day a week basis.

In order to keep up with our professional and social obligations, we feel as if we must plug ourselves into a continuous stream of digital contact. And yet through all these online interactions, we are feeling more and more alienated.

Sherry Turkle, author of Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other and founder of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, explains in an interview with NPR that people who are too immersed in digital conversations are not making “the important emotional connections they otherwise would” and that “it is possible to be in constant digital communication and yet still feel very much alone.”

The most obvious cure to combat this technological loneliness is to make sure to engage with family, friends and neighbors in more real-time, face-face interactions. Yet, there is another remedy that works both alongside human contact, and can also be a nurturing alternative when those very people we are trying to connect with are busy in their own electronic worlds.

Interacting with our animal friends soothes the emotional isolation of this digital age and — in some cases — helps to increase social skills at the same time. The animals in our daily lives, whether they be pets or the everyday birds, squirrels and other wildlife in our parks and backyards can make us feel more connected and less alienated.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, animal-assisted activities can enhance socialization, reduce stress, help alleviate anxiety and loneliness, improve mood and general well-being, as well as encourage people to engage more often in leisure and recreational activities. Evidence also supports that pet presence at home helps develop and encourage children’s social skills.

A blog published on Mayo Clinic’s Healthy Lifestyle section by Edward T. Creagan, M.D. on July 15, 2010, illustrates the above points with a poignant yet common example of the healing that can occur when a person emotionally bonds with his or her pet. Dr. Creagan writes about “a miraculous transformation” in a client, where “Hope replaced despair, and joy had replaced anger.”

When he asked this client what had happened, the patient exclaimed how she owed it all to her new rescue dog, Toto. It turns out that Toto gave the owner the simple gift of responsibility. Taking care of another living being often can help people climb out of both chronic and acute depression and feelings of isolation.

Creagan also notes that, “As scientists have discovered, animals have healing powers.” When people pet a cat or dog, they experience a surge of healing hormones and chemicals, which reduce heart rate and bring on feelings of peace and calm.

On the Depression Health Center section of WebMD, writer Kathleen Doheny lists a number of positive ways animals can help elevate people’s moods in her article, “Pets for Depression and Health.” Doheny notes how animals reward us with unconditional love and companionship, which can help us overcome feelings of alienation and depression.

Pets also can increase our physical activity and social interaction with other people. Walking our dogs in the park, socializing with other cat lovers, or even commiserating with other pet owners at the vet all help us feel more connected with our pets, as well as each other. Pets also are natural icebreakers, in which both owners and passersby can easily chat about.

When we are petting our cat, walking a neighbor’s dog, or even watching crows play in the wind, we remind ourselves that there is life outside of our narrow screens. We are better able to ground ourselves in the here and now simply because that’s how animals live their lives. We are reminded that we are living, breathing animals ourselves, who thrive from the power of touch, the peaceful solitude of nature, and unconditional love.

So, make sure to unplug your body and mind every day and allow yourself to enjoy the soothing connection with animals. Play with a cat, do your neighbor a favor and take her dog for a lunchtime walk in the neighborhood, or even just take a breather in your own garden and watch a squirrel scurry up a tree. These simple connections with our animal friends may very well put all the detached interplay of the digital world into perspective.

]]>http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/06/18/the-healing-power-of-animals-in-our-age-of-technology/feed/1How the ADAA Helps People with Anxiety Disorders & Depressionhttp://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/05/07/how-adaa-helps-people-anxiety-depression/
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/05/07/how-adaa-helps-people-anxiety-depression/#commentsWed, 07 May 2014 10:45:44 +0000http://psychcentral.com/blog/?p=57540The following is an interview with Alies Muskin, executive director of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA).

Q: National Anxiety and Depression Awareness Week is from May 4-10 this year. Why do you feel it’s important that there’s a week dedicated to the awareness of anxiety and depression?

A: Millions of children and adults suffer from an anxiety disorder such as panic disorder or social anxiety disorder, depression or a related disorder, including obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Many suffer in silence, do not seek treatment, or even realize that they have a real, serious, and treatable condition. National Anxiety and Depression Awareness Week allows ADAA and other organizations to highlight these disorders and offer educational resources and information to those who suffer and their families.

Q: Your organization is the leader in helping to prevent, treat, and cure anxiety disorders and depression. Why do you feel so many people are reluctant to seek treatment? How does ADAA help assist people with this process?

A: Unlike the everyday anxiety or sadness we all feel from time to time, the physical and psychological symptoms associated with anxiety disorders and depression are often so intense that they stop people from doing the very things they want and often love to do. People with these disorders look fine. They are embarrassed and afraid to tell people what is actually wrong or how they are feeling because it might be trivialized. Others may think they should be able to overcome this on their own.

ADAA assists people in several ways. First, it is important to learn about and understand the disorder. So many people tell us that just knowing that they are not alone is empowering. ADAA provides resources about how to find a treatment provider, questions to ask a provider, and an online directory of providers. Individuals can also call ADAA to ask for help if they are uncomfortable going online or do not have access to a computer.

Q: ADAA provides much-needed information and treatment referrals. How many people benefit from your services each year?

A: All of our resources are available for free. We know that close to 16,000 people visit our website every day; and we respond to tens of thousands of email and phone requests in a year.

Q: Your website states that anxiety disorders are the most common illness in the U.S. Does this impact the U.S. economically?

A: According to a study published in 1999 (the latest study), anxiety disorders cost the U.S. more than $42 billion a year, almost one-third of the country’s $148 billion total mental health bill. [“The Economic Burden of Anxiety Disorders,” a study commissioned by ADAA, The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 60(7), July 1999.]

More than $22.84 billion of those costs are associated with the repeated use of health care services; people with anxiety disorders seek relief for symptoms that mimic physical illnesses.

Q: It seems to me that many anxiety sufferers feel as if they will never be able to conquer this challenging disorder. How treatable is anxiety? What should people be aware of when they seek treatment?

A: Anxiety disorders are very treatable. There are excellent treatments that have been proved scientifically to be effective. That said, people respond differently to treatments, so there is no one treatment that works for everyone. Treatment should be tailored to each person’s individual diagnosis.

These disorders can be treated by a variety of providers who are licensed to treat mental health, including a psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, marriage and family therapist, behavioral health counselor, psychiatric nurse or nurse practitioner, as well as primary care physicians.

When seeking treatment, people should feel comfortable with a therapist and be able to ask about the therapist’s experience treating these disorders, type of treatment recommended, length of time of treatment, cost, insurance, training, etc. Make a list of questions to ask the therapist at your visit. ADAA’s website has information and questions to ask a therapist.

Q: I see that ADAA has funded more than $1.5 million toward anxiety disorder research. What does the most current research tell us?

A: There are three things to highlight:

We now understand that anxiety disorders are ubiquitous and can exist on their own and as a complication of other disorders, such as depression, substance abuse, and even schizophrenia. Anxiety disorders are development disorders that appear early in children and teens. Anxiety is associated with relapse, development of multiple disorders, substance abuse and even suicide risk.

Compared to other disorders, anxiety disorders have clearly established medication and psychotherapies that work reasonably well for the majority of sufferers.

Because the brain-behavior relationships are similar in rodents and humans, we have good models for anxiety compared to other problems like schizophrenia. Understanding the basic science gives us hope that advances in neuroscience may impact how we treat and diagnose anxiety disorders sooner than for schizophrenia or psychosis.

Q: What are some ways someone would be able to support ADAA’s mission?

A: People can support ADAA’s mission by learning about these disorders and their treatment and helping others who need the information. In this way, everyone is able to make a difference in the lives of those they love who have one of these disorders.

Individuals can donate to ADAA directly via our website, www.adaa.org, or participate in a program like iGive.com that provides ADAA with a percentage of an online purchase without costing the individual.

]]>http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/05/07/how-adaa-helps-people-anxiety-depression/feed/0Strategies for the Chronically Overworkedhttp://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/04/22/strategies-for-the-chronically-overworked/
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/04/22/strategies-for-the-chronically-overworked/#commentsTue, 22 Apr 2014 10:45:29 +0000http://psychcentral.com/blog/?p=57221The following is an interview with Dr. Greg Marcus, founder of the Idolbuster Coaching Institute.

Q: Dr. Greg, I recently read your book, Busting Your Corporate Idol: How to Reconnect with Values & Regain Control of Your Life. I was impressed with how well you described the dysfunction behind the “company-first” identity, which so many corporations adhere to. Please share more about this, what you mean by corporate idolatry, and what people who work in these environments should be aware of.

A: In many companies, you are expected to be on call 24/7. This includes checking email and taking phone calls on vacation. In effect, people are asked to make the company a higher priority than whatever else is going on in their lives.

People who conform to the always-on-call culture begin to internalize these company-first values, which results in a personal identity that becomes too tied up with the company. I call this end state, when people have made the company the most important thing in their lives, corporate idolatry.

Once someone has gone down the corporate idolatry road, more and more of their time and energy will go to the company. This is very dangerous for the individual because rationalizations will start to reinforce behaviors that work against one’s own health and can damage relationships with the people we care most about.

Q: What happened in your own work experience to prompt you to write Busting Your Corporate Idol?

A: There was a time when I was working 90 hours a week. I chased the illusion that work could validate me, which led me to work longer and longer hours. I loved what I did, and was a true believer in the company mission to revolutionize health care. After my product flopped in the market and enraged customers, I felt like I had let the company down, and I started to feel worthless.

That changed on Yom Kippur almost seven years ago. Yom Kippur is the Jewish day of atonement, when we reflect on the previous year, try to figure out where we’ve “sinned” and how to do better next year. For some reason I started to think about the sin of idolatry.

As I started to dismiss idolatry as that ancient “statue worshipping thing” — something not relevant in the modern world — this phrase popped into my head: “You need to do what is best for the company.”

At work, we used that phrase all the time to justify an unpopular decision, like a layoff or pushing a product out the door that wasn’t ready, knowing customers would be mad. Doing what is best for the company is not the same as doing what is best. I realized that I had made my company an idol, and I decided to start putting people first.

One year later, I was working one-third fewer hours without changing jobs, and my career was flourishing.

Q: In Part 2 of the book, you have a section about what kind of personality types to watch out for and the best way to work with them. You list them as: Scorpion, Fox, and Wolf. Please describe what motivates these types, their strengths and weaknesses, and suggestions for how to deal with them.

A: As I interviewed people for the book, I kept hearing stories that had the same three characters: The flatterer, the zealot, and the person who gets screwed over after doing the right thing. If I knew how to identify these people when I was in the corporate world, I would have avoided a lot of difficulty.

Myers-Briggs and the Enneagram classifications don’t correlate with these character types. I created a new system, inspired by fables and parables.

The Scorpion, named from the fable of the Scorpion and the Frog, is a zealot who steamrollers people in pursuit of his or her vision, even when it is self-defeating to do so. Your happiness and needs are not on a Scorpion’s radar. Sooner or later you will be stung.

The Fox, named for the fable of the Fox and the Crow, puts him- or herself first and manipulates others to get ahead. A Fox will take credit for your success, and blame you for their failure. The Fox doesn’t actually know anything, and if put in a position where they need to do and not just talk, their ineptitude quickly becomes apparent.

The Wolf, named from the parable of the Fox and the Wolf, is a pack animal that considers the welfare of others when making a decision. Wolves are powerful and effective. But they are too trusting, easy prey for a Fox looking to get ahead or a Scorpion looking for cannon fodder.

If you know the animal character of your boss and coworkers, you will know who to trust in what circumstances.

Q: Tell us what you mean by “people-first” values and why this value system is so critically important for overall mental health.

A: People-first values is the opposite of a company-first value system. In all circumstances, we do what is best for people, including ourselves. Values drive our priorities, which in turn lead to the decisions and actions we make in everyday life. By changing our values from company-first to people-first, we set off a cascade of small changes that add up to a much more fulfilling life. Putting people first means shifting time from work to people.

One of the best ways to be happy is to spend time with the people we care about. Chronic overwork brings a high risk for depression and stress-related illness.

Q: You talk about the reality of office politics and how people can actually engage in them in a positive way. Please give some pointers on why and how people can benefit from participating in them.

A: Politics are a reality in the workplace. If you choose not to participate, you are ceding your power to others. Playing politics can be as simple as getting to know more people and looking for ways to help them. Playing politics will give you a power base to defend yourself from the unscrupulous. An easy way to get started is to have lunch with people from other departments.

Q: Lastly, please add anything else that you would like readers to take away after reading the book, and where they may purchase it.

A: Putting people first is a virtuous cycle. As you start to work fewer hours, you will get more sleep and begin to feel better, which will encourage you to work even fewer hours. At work, more rest and less stress means better decisions, and fewer mistakes.

Busting Your Corporate Idol is available on Amazon and can be ordered by any bookstore.

My path toward healing from anxiety has not been easy or straightforward. I tried many different avenues, from traditional therapy and medication to acupuncture and herbs. But it wasn’t until I turned to the written word that I was finally able to conquer the everyday angst of ongoing anxiety.

The healing first started by simply reading about it. I devoured many self-help books on the subject, including Lucinda Bassett’s From Panic to Power, finally understanding that I wasn’t the only person leading a normal life while fighting the undertow of fear. This fact alone helped me become more hopeful and empowered. I realized that if people with thoughts just as scary — if not more so —than mine could climb out of their anxiety, then I could too.

Still, my mind remained uneasy, quite ready to spin another tale of worry into a sleepless night of fear.

Then one day I was lamenting to my friend Eve about my latest obsession, and she suggested I write a novel. I had been content publishing how-to and travel articles and had never thought I had a novel in me. Yet, the second she said it, I nodded in complete agreement. With so many helpful nonfiction books about how to battle worry and anxiety, why not write a novel about a protagonist struggling with this disorder? Why not write a novel that could help others?

I already knew from my own experience how I relate to and empathize with fictional characters and their journeys, and since so many people talk about how cathartic reading a good novel can be, I knew a story could provide more than just entertainment. Alongside traditional and alternative therapies, fiction can serve as a very functional kind of tool. It can take us out of our heads in such a way that it can enhance healing with the comforting ease we’ve been longing for.

I had started writing “The Grace of Crows” with that goal in mind. Then, after several months of working on it, I had developed a passion and determination I never possessed before. I found myself turning down lunch dates and weekend hikes because I actually started to enjoy the challenge of crafting, revising and even editing this long, challenging thing called a novel more than my leisure time.

And one day it dawned on me. The anxiety had decreased so much that it no longer felt like a major disease in which I had to battle, but rather like an annoying allergy I merely had to tend to from time to time. Interestingly, the more I worked on this fictional story about a woman learning to overcome her irrational fears, the more my own worries and dread diminished.

As one of my characters says to the protagonist, Saylor, early on in the novel: “—the creative part of your brain goes over to the dark side when you don’t give it the outlet it needs.” So unlock your positive passions, fellow anxiety warriors, whether they are writing, reading, or art, web designing, interior decorating, or math. Use them alongside whatever traditional and alternative therapies that are helping you, and then really engage in them. With time, you may find that your brain will have less room to go “to the dark side,” allowing the space for your creativity, talents, and yes — even happiness — to blossom.

This post provides more information about the psychological and scientific reasons behind why fiction reading can reduce emotional turmoil.

]]>http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/03/23/how-writing-helped-me-conquer-real-life-anxiety/feed/2The Courage That Comes with Anxietyhttp://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/03/05/the-courage-that-comes-with-anxiety/
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/03/05/the-courage-that-comes-with-anxiety/#commentsWed, 05 Mar 2014 23:25:42 +0000http://psychcentral.com/blog/?p=55812“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” ~ Ambrose Redmoon

Courage is not usually a word anxiety sufferers would list as one of their most outstanding attributes. Yet it should be.

For even the best of lives are thorn-ridden with frustration, disappointment, and loss. Add the extremely difficult challenge of trudging through outer problems while contending with the inner turmoil of anxiety, and it’s apparent that fortitude, determination — and yes, courage — are some of the strengths that anxious people may not even realize they posses.

Yet people with anxiety probably carry these strengths in higher reserves than those without anxiety.

Unfortunately, people with anxiety often feel a much larger share of shame and regret, labeling themselves as weak people who can’t control their fears. What people who suffer from anxiety must realize — and remind themselves of — is that anxiety is not something that they brought upon themselves; nor does it make them any weaker than anyone else.

According to Scott Stossel, author of the wildly popular book, My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind, the overwhelming conclusion culminating from tens of thousands of studies on the heritability of anxiety show that the susceptibility to anxiety is strongly determined by genes.

The genetics of anxiety not only make people whom inherent the “worry” gene, more prone to anxiety, it may also make it more difficult to overcome. A Science Daily article dated on March 11, 2009, cites research provided by the Association for Psychological Science, which findings suggest that those susceptible to anxiety disorders are more prone to developing fears, and at the same time, less likely to overcome any fears that arise.

If anxiety stems largely from genetics, our society’s conventional response of “just pull up your socks and deal,” can be seen as both outdated and unrealistic. Just like other inherited medical issues which may cause people to have to turn to the necessary aids of physical therapy, medications, or surgery to correct, anxiety should be viewed as just a real — and sometimes an even more difficult — challenge. To understand and ultimately work toward the most beneficial healing process, it’s time to let go of the fallacy that those who struggle with this debilitating disease are weak.

As Associate Director of the Anxiety and Phobia Treatment Center for White Plains Hospital Center, Martin N. Seif, Ph.D., a clinician who has thirty years experience treating anxiety disorders (and has lived through the crippling effects of anxiety himself), says, “Courage is the discomfort that you are willing to experience in order to reach a goal.” Learning to challenge your anxiety is about resisting the urge to avoid whatever it is that makes you fearful. Seif notes that this is the demonstration of what real courage is all about.

Toward the end of My Age of Anxiety, Stossel shares that even though his anxiety has made him feel like a vulnerable wreck at times, he still recognizes that he probably isn’t as weak as he thinks he is. As his “Dr. W.” points out, living with an anxiety disorder is a handicap.

To manage anxiety while carrying on the best you can (even when you don’t think you are), is a greater accomplishment than anxiety-sufferers give themselves credit for. An accomplishment that equals an invisible, yet determined kind of courage that should be celebrated.

]]>http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/03/05/the-courage-that-comes-with-anxiety/feed/4Why Novel Reading Reduces Anxietyhttp://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/02/15/why-novel-reading-reduces-anxiety/
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/02/15/why-novel-reading-reduces-anxiety/#commentsSat, 15 Feb 2014 23:15:10 +0000http://psychcentral.com/blog/?p=55141“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.”
~James Baldwin, American author (1924-1987)

In The Power of Myth, the late scholar and famous mythologist Joseph Campbell explains that stories help give us relevance and meaning to our lives and that “… in popular novels, the main character is a hero or heroine who has found or done something beyond the normal range of achievement and experience.”

In response to Campbell’s discussion about how the hero’s journey in myth and literature is about creating a more mature — and better — version of oneself, the distinguished journalist Bill Moyers pointed out how everyday people — “who may not be heroes in the grand sense of redeeming society” — can still relate to a protagonist’s transformation, allowing even the most outwardly meek of us to embark on an inner kind of hero’s journey.

The simple act of reading a novel, then, can give us a psychological shot of courage, encouraging personal growth while reducing anxiety.

In fact, there’s even a term for this phenomenon: bibliotherapy. First coined by Presbyterian minister Samuel M. Crothers in 1916, bibliotherapy is a combination of the Greek words for therapy and books. And now author Alain de Botton has created a bibliotherapy service at his London company, The School of Life, in which bibliotherapists with PhDs in literature introduce people to books that de Botton states, “…are important to them at that moment in their life.”

The author of How Proust Can Change Your Life, a book that explains the significance of literature and how it gives insight into one’s own journey, and Status Anxiety, a nonfiction book about overcoming the universal anxiety of what others think of us, de Botton blends literary fiction and self-help through his bibliotherapy service. Dubbed a “brilliant reading prescription” by de Botton, this therapeutic approach helps encourage emotional healing by matching whatever personal challenges a person is going through with specific literature.

Of course, the concept behind bibliotherapy is nothing new. Inscribed over the door of the ancient library at Thebes was the phrase “Healing place for the soul.” And among the many examples of bibliotherapy practices over time, both Britain and the United States established patients’ libraries in hospitals during the First World War, where librarians used reading to encourage recovery for soldiers with physical as well as mental trauma.

Now, science is proving the mythologists, authors, and librarians right. A recent study at Emory University has shown that novel reading enhances connectivity in the brain as well as improving brain function. Published in the university’s eScienceCommons blog on December 17, 2013 by Carol Clark, the lead author of the study and neuroscientist, Professor Gregory Berns, is quoted as saying, “The neural changes that we found associated with physical sensation and movement systems suggest that reading a novel can transport you into the body of the protagonist.” Clark also writes that Berns notes how the neural changes weren’t just immediate reactions, but persisted the mornings after the readings as well as for five days after participants completed the novel.

Good stories, then, not only help us relate to the hero’s journey, as Joseph Campbell pointed out, but the act of reading them actually can reconfigure brain networks. This means that not only are we able to escape from our problems while reading, it also increases compassion to another’s suffering — as well as perhaps to one’s own — which can be a major aid to self-growth and healing, as well as helping to decrease anxiety and depression.

Readers have intuitively known this all along. No authors, mythologists, or scientists need to explain to the readers who responded to a question in the Social Anxiety Network (posted in March 2012) about whether reading helps anxiety and depression. As one respondent said, “For me reading lets me escape into another ‘world’ it’s like I become the protagonist,” while another reader shares, “Definitely — it takes me to another world for a while and gets my mind off of obsessing over my problems, anxieties, etc. Reading a good book is always relaxing therapy for me.”

Looking at both the scientific and anecdotal evidence, it’s apparent that researchers and readers are on the same page. So remember that a prescription for your distress may just be an arm’s length away — to your bedside table, where that novel is patiently waiting for you to step inside and embark on your own inner journey.